It is hard to take responsibility for one’s choice. It is hard to state a definite opinion, hard to make a decision, because you bear responsibility for all its consequences and fruits. And if this choice, this decision, belongs to the religious or moral sphere, then one has to answer for it with one’s whole life. And in general it is hard to make decisions: can a person really know anything for certain?

That is why the moment is so important when the apostle Peter, whether on his own behalf or on behalf of all the Twelve, resolves to say the words: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Through this confession Peter receives the Lord Jesus as Savior. Everything that follows, witness, preaching, the weight of the night in Gethsemane, and the gift of Pentecost, is founded on this decision of Peter, on his personal act and confession. Becoming the foundation of the Church, he is joined, if not to the divine nature, for the Last Supper is still far off, then to Christ’s divine authority.

Peter himself appears to have experienced this moment deeply. In his letter, written around the year 63, when speaking about the essence of faith and life, he mentions precisely the readiness “to give an account of the hope” (1 Pet. 3:15). Strictly speaking, the apostleship of the Twelve consists first of all in their confession and only afterward in preaching over the whole face of the earth. And this applies in full measure to all their disciples.

Peter stands out among the other disciples of Christ not only by age and by leadership traits. But all of that is not enough for the astonishing promise that Jesus gives him (Matt. 16:18). Perhaps Peter's most important quality, the one that makes him the second most significant figure in the Gospel, is that he responds immediately and actively to every new situation in his relationship with Christ. He hardly pauses to think and often makes mistakes, but he is not passive; he makes the effort. It is Peter who tries to walk on water, and it is Peter who becomes the first of the disciples to perform miracles of healing and resurrection.

Of course, there are other paths of holiness, but Christ lays Peter's holiness at the foundation of the holiness of the Church.

Today's reading tells us about Peter's confession (vv. 13-20), which is preceded by Jesus' conversations with the Pharisees about signs (vv. 1-4) and with the disciples about the "leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees" (vv. 5-12). It concludes with a description of Peter's conversation with Jesus, during which Jesus speaks rather sharply about His disciple (vv. 21-28).

The central event here is Peter's confession: he recognizes in Jesus the Messiah, the Christ promised by God, while the people considered Him a prophet (vv. 14-16). And then Jesus, confirming Peter's conclusion, says that he could understand this only through revelation from God (v. 17).

It would seem that the Messiah was expected not only by Jesus' disciples: in Gospel times, messianic expectation among the Jewish people was very intense. But the point is that Jesus least of all resembled the Messiah whom both the people and the learned rabbis expected. The people expected a Messiah-king who would free Judea from Roman rule; the learned rabbis and theologian-scribes wanted to see a Messiah who matched their theological theories. It is no accident that the Pharisees and Sadducees ask Jesus to show them one of those messianic signs by which, according to their own concepts, the Messiah alone could be recognized. And Jesus refuses - not, of course, because it was difficult for Him, but because He did not want to fit into any theological concept and had no intention of conforming to anyone's ideas. Accepting such a Messiah, one who matched no generally accepted norms or views, and in whom the majority were ready to see an ungodly man and a violator of the Torah rather than the Messiah, was truly possible only by revelation.

Soon after this, it was time for Peter and the other disciples to learn about the cross and the Resurrection (v. 21), and then it turned out that this knowledge was unbearable for a person. It was still possible to accept a persecuted and suffering Messiah, especially since the image of the suffering Messiah was well known to every believing Jew from the book of Isaiah. But to accept His complete defeat was utterly unthinkable, and death on the cross was perceived by Peter and the other apostles only as defeat. The reality of resurrection in general, and of Christ's Resurrection in particular, was still only a distant prospect for them, so that even when He had risen, they still could not fully believe it for a long time.

It is no surprise that Peter cannot come to terms with the thought that the Teacher's death is inevitable (v. 22). But Jesus is uncompromising here as well: one cannot stop halfway; one cannot accept the Messiah and refuse His path. A person who acts this way turns from a disciple into an adversary (v. 23). There is only one road into the Kingdom (vv. 24-27), and one can arrive there only by walking it to the end.